Teacher crunch hits higher secondary paper evaluation as examiner numbers fall short
Telegraph | 10 March 2026
The state higher secondary council has told heads of institutions that no teacher will be exempted from script evaluation duties because the teacher strength is “critically low” compared with the number of students.
In a letter to the heads of government and government-aided schools, a deputy secretary of the council wrote: “You are aware of the fact that, in our state, at the secondary and higher secondary levels, the strength of teachers is critically low compared to the number of students at the secondary and higher secondary levels. Therefore, the council can’t exempt any teacher from the script evaluation duty.”
“The council, in general, is not going to approve any prayer seeking exemption,” the letter added.
The semesterised state higher secondary exams ended on February 27.
Students who failed to clear the third-semester exams in September wrote their supplementary tests alongside the fourth-semester exams between February 12 and 27.
The last batch of students who had failed the higher secondary exams under the old annual system in March last year also appeared for the test this February.
Around 7.5 lakh students wrote the higher secondary exams this year, and the council does not have enough examiners to evaluate such a large number of scripts, a council official said.
The state school service commission (SSC), which conducted selection tests to hire teachers in September after a gap of nine years, is yet to begin recruitment at the secondary and higher secondary levels.
In its instructions to school heads, the council said teachers can be exempted from evaluation duty only on four grounds:
If the teacher has been assigned the role of a head examiner for Madhyamik script evaluation
If the teacher is on leave to pursue a BEd degree
If the teacher is on maternity leave
If the teacher is on “leave without pay”
The council told heads of institutions that, in the absence of these grounds, they should not forward any recommendation seeking exemption from evaluation work.
“We have to publish the results on time. There are 64 subjects. If the entire pool of available examiners cannot be engaged for evaluation, it will delay the publication of the Plus-II results, which will consequently affect undergraduate admissions,” a council official said.
Council deputy secretary Yaser Arafat, who issued the notice, declined to comment.
Metro had reported on February 10 that the state HS council had to engage primary schoolteachers, who teach Classes I to V, as invigilators for the Class XII board exams to cope with the shortage of Plus-II level teachers.
The SSC is required to complete the recruitment of 12,514 teachers at the Plus-II level by August 31 this year, as mandated by the Supreme Court, an HS council official said. “By next year, the number of examiners is expected to increase,” the official added.